Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII. The end.
"Sir, we're entering into our final approach of Costa del Sol and will be landing shortly." President Shinra looked over to the helicopter pilot, who had informed him of the current situation and shot him a scornful glare.
"Pay attention to what you're doing! I can see full well that we're approaching Costa del Sol!" the President yelled at the top of his lungs, for anything quieter would have been drowned out in the roar of the helicopter. Also, he was quite unhappy with Shinra's state of affairs. How had things gone so badly? The vast resources of Midgar had been at his disposal, the planet itself working to energize his forces, and yet somehow he was losing. It seemed impossible, especially with the super-human forces of SOLDIER acting in his name.
For President Shinra, it all began with Hojo. Millions, even billions, of dollars had been put into the Sephiroth project. Shinra had been forced to pay for the syringes, the Jenova extraction equipment, the anti-toxins, the countless hospital visits, the research, everything imaginable, and what he gotten in return? Nothing! All the money that could have been spent on weaponry, armor, and more soldiers was spent on one person who died before he could even prove himself. And when the news came that his project was a complete failure, that all that money had been wasted, Hojo didn't even bat an eye. He merely requested yet more money to continue his research in other fields.
Of course, there were numerous other problems plaguing Shinra Inc., but they were all problems that the President had no control over. Control, that was what bothered him the most. For him, control was a very important thing. If you were not in control, if you were subject to the winds of fate and change as opposed to your own will, where were you headed? You couldn't know, because you couldn't control it. That he lacked control over the elements of his life that constantly conspired against him was the real problem. If he could just control those things, then all the pieces would so quickly fall into place.
The President then looked to his right, where a young red-haired boy looked down contemptuously at the soldiers milling about in Costa del Sol. Shinra smiled slightly, Rufus would be the perfect heir to Shinra's throne. Cold, calculating, callous, those were three attributes Rufus had, and they were attributes he could use to dominate the world. But, he would only be able to hold a legacy intact, not create one. That was why Shinra knew that he needed to conquer the lands before Rufus came to power. If Rufus came to power he would let Shinra stagnate. In a stagnant state Shinra would be standing still, and in standing still Shinra would be rotting, weakening itself for those who would oppose it.
Shinra waited calmly as the helicopter slowed before stopping altogether, hovering in the sky. The helicopter slowly lowered before landing with a thud, and the roar of its whirling subsided before becoming non-existent. Shinra stood up and motioned for Rufus to do the same, and the two stepped out from the helicopter, greeted by a multitude of military officers informing him of the Costa del Sol invasion. Shinra quickly silenced them and looked around. Something was…different. Shinra finally saw it. A man with silvery hair, standing aloof from everyone else. Shinra stared long and hard at the man, and he called for him to come forward. The man stood still, refusing to move. Shinra's eyes narrowed, and he ordered one of the officers to bring him forward. The officer instantly complied, but the man did not. He simply refused to move. The officer persisted in his requests, and eventually resorted to threats.
The President watched as a quick flash of light streaked through the air. At first nothing happened, but then the officer staggered back before falling to the ground, desperately trying to keep a wound in his stomach closed. His hands were stained red, and a garnet liquid began to surface through the gaps between his fingers. He cried for help, for a medic, but everyone was unmoving. Shinra nodded to himself. Ambition was rewarded within Shinra. If you killed your superior, the superior was allowed to die for being incompetent and unable to inspire respect. He looked over to Rufus, and noted with satisfaction the apathy of his son. He would have to be able to handle death as it was meant to be handled. Death was merely the solace for the weak. Life was for the strong and the strong alone.
None of this, however, changed the President's infuriation with the man's refusal to acknowledge him. Fed up with the man he walked over to him and demanded his attention. The man lifted his head up to look Shinra in the eye, and Shinra was disconcerted by what he saw. Mako green eyes…no, they weren't even that. They glowed with a ferocity and intensity unlike anything Shinra had seen before. By just looking him in the eye Shinra could see that the man had been exposed to quite a bit of Mako over his lifetime, and by far more Mako than Shinra would ever have allowed.
"So," the man broke his silence, and his voice was hypnotic, "you're President Shinra. What a… disappointment." The man then turned and walked away, not giving Shinra a second look. His anger having gone past his tolerance level Shinra brought out one of his pistols and fired at the man. He managed to hit him in the shoulder, but the man continued to walk on, even as his blood collected and fell to the ground. Shinra shifted his aim a bit, but found that he could not fire off a more lethal shot. To do such would be to disrespect such an admirable threshold for pain. Instead he simply walked over to where his villa was. As soon as he got there two men were waiting for him. The first was the esteemed leader of the Turks, Tseng. The other was the ingenious Heidegger.
The two walked up and bowed, reciting some oath to Shinra, both the company and president. Shinra didn't see why they bothered; the reason why they were high-ranking was due to exceptional skills in such fields as disloyalty, dishonesty, along with a bit of treachery, and maybe just a dash of corruption. Eh, who did the president think he was kidding? They were all corrupt to the bone.
"Enough with the pleasantries." Shinra stated with a rather agitated tone. "I'd rather make this quick. Is there even a reason to be here? Anything in particular I should know about?" Patience was a virtue, and Shinra knew that full well. Then again, he hadn't gotten so powerful by being full of virtue. Seeing that the president was rather impatient, Tseng quickly spoke up.
"We've found him." Tseng stated in a matter-of-fact tone. He seemed to presume that the person he had found was so important he didn't even need to be named.
"Who is he?" Shinra asked, and noted with some surprise that even Heidegger didn't know who this person was. So Tseng was obviously keeping the situation under wraps, even from his peers. This person must have been extremely classified, as Tseng was nervously glancing around the room, looking for people and checking to see if the room was bugged. Obviously not satisfied enough with his check but knowing how impatient the president could be, Tseng simply restated his sentence.
"We've found him." Shinra, still confused at this point, gave Tseng the sort of look that had inspired people with much greater wills to say anything and everything they knew. "As you know, quite a few years ago we started a rather… expensive project. Some of the most renowned scientists in the world were working on it. The project ended in failure."
"And which project is that? I've funded a lot of projects for scientists that proved to be failures."
"The project had no name." Tseng made the words sound ominous somehow, and he should have. Every Shinra project had a name. "The project," Tseng continued, "was regarded as non-existent. At the time, the scientist heading it was considered missing, which he basically was. The funds that fueled the project were derived from a transfer of accounts. Twenty-two different accounts deposited money into this scientist's 'funeral funding' and 'rescue effort'. Each account was from a different offshore bank that Shinra Inc. supplied with money through numerous different phantom transfers that did not exist as far as most everyone was concerned. As far as the public knew, private donations kept the accounts going."
"You seem to be overly fascinated by the money trail Tseng. I know this sort of deception is right up your alley, but get to the point." Shinra was definitely not patient today.
"This transfer process is very important. It was how we allocated over 12 billion gil into the most daring and expensive project in Shinra's history, yet it is not in Shinra's history. What project would require not only such vast sums of money, but also for no one to know that this money was being used?" Tseng made it sound as though by now Shinra should know it for sure, yet he saw from the blank stare in Shinra's eyes that he clearly didn't, nor did Heidegger. "Surely, sir, you must know the one unofficial project is Shinra's history. It involved none other than Hojo." This was when everything came together for Shinra.
"You can't be saying we've found him." Shinra couldn't help but be amused by the fact that now he was using 'him'. Yet he realized why Tseng had been doing so. There was no way anyone outside of the absolute highest-ranking officials within Shinra would know about this project. Heidegger, also having realized who this person was, seemed to think even saying 'him' was somewhat dangerous.
"We found him. He's in perfect condition. A completely undamaged specimen. He seems to be more powerful than when we lost him. Far more powerful." Shinra actually smiled at this. This was indeed important news. Even better, it was important news that he actually liked hearing!
Sephiroth sat unflinching as a knife dug into his shoulder. Tolerance for pain was important in a warrior. Besides, to move would be to risk further injuring himself. He simply had to sit patiently, willing himself through the intense pain as Reno probed further and further with the knife. As to why he had someone carving a nice hole in his shoulder in the first place, Sephiroth needed the bullet that had lodged itself in his shoulder out before the wound began to heal and incorporate the leaden projectile into his body. Rather amazingly, Shinra had managed to shoot the same shoulder that had taken an arrow not too long ago, almost in the exact same place. A most unhappy coincidence, yet such was life.
After another few minutes, the metal blade carefully exited his shoulder, and Reno dropped the bloodstained bullet at Sephiroth's feet.
"Consider it a souvenir. It's not every day that someone lives after getting the prez mad. You're gonna need all the good luck you can get."
"And why would that be?" Sephiroth inquired. Luck was only a factor when a person had failed to be perfect.
"Well," Reno began, obviously rather pleased with himself, "the president, our most gloried Shinra…" the name was spoken with just a little venom, "likes to reward those who discover the next big thing." Reno put every bit of drama into the last two words. "Now Sephiroth, my boy, you could very well be the next big thing." Sephiroth wondered why Reno was calling him 'my boy' when he was clearly older than Reno. "So… I've decided to enlist you. Now, I know you may be thinking something along the lines of 'Tseng already made me a part of SOLDIER', but that's not being enlisted. That's being given a name and told to waltz off to Midgar, where most soldiers spend more time…" Sephiroth simply filtered out the ensuing obscenity, "than actually battling. I'm guessing you don't want to do that.
"So, to save you from such a horrible plight. I've demoted you! You're now an average Joe. And you know what that means? Off to war you go! And let me tell you, when I say war, I mean war. Not some pathetic battle with one or two battalions. I'm talking about epic battles between hundreds of thousands of soldiers. More than enough people for you to kill. Hell, you can go ahead and kill a few of your own allies if you really wanted, it would just be passed off as confusion in the heat of battle."
"I hardly see how this is considered doing me a favor."
"What are you talking about? It's a huge favor!" Reno said the words with a passion that was undoubtedly insincere. "You like to fight, you get to fight!"
"To get you a higher ranking in Shinra…"
"Well yes, I might benefit from your success. But I would probably only get one or two congratulatory pats one the back. Nothing more. Now then, you see that green bag over there? Yes? Within it is all the stuff you could need. A uniform, albeit the military dress code isn't so strict these days, along with a standard rifle, sword, and yes, even a complimentary materia of excellent quality!"
Sephiroth quickly rummaged through the bag and found the materia orb. It was some of the worst materia he had seen. The surface was rather dull, meaning it was probably made from the excess Mako that wasn't even of a high enough grade to power the slums. There were numerous cracks along its surface, some obviously from being hit with a sword or a hammer too hard in battle, others just there due to the shoddy workmanship. There was even still fresh blood on the materia. Incidentally, right next to Sephiroth was the corpse of a soldier, whose sword's sole materia slot was suspiciously empty.
"So we might have had to cut a few corners on the complimentary materia." Reno said when he realized Sephiroth knew the materia could hardly be considered good. It didn't matter though. Sephiroth was off to war anyway. He really didn't have a choice.
"You can keep the materia. Just tell me where the biggest battle is." Sephiroth had to admit that while he disliked being told to do anything, he did want to fight. He couldn't get his revenge guarding a city that wouldn't be attacked. Reno adopted the widest grin Sephiroth had ever seen and began to inform Sephiroth of all the closest hotspots for action.
Reno walked into Shinra's villa extremely pleased with himself. When Sephiroth prevailed in battle, he would get all the credit. And if Sephiroth so happened to die in battle, no matter. He would be just one more potential great that proved to be lackluster.
As soon as Reno neared Shinra he noticed that he was talking to Tseng and Heidegger in extremely muted tones, just above a whisper. As soon as they heard Reno coming they immediately stopped, all three looking at him angrily.
"This better be important." Shinra said with contempt. He was always angry at Reno though, so Reno didn't really mind.
"That all depends on how things go in the future. Just in case everything goes well, I'd like to inform you of something huge. I've recruited someone who has the potential to be the greatest general in Shinra's history."
"And just who is that?" Tseng asked, more than a little annoyed with the inconvenience of Reno.
"You know him Tseng. You tried to put him in SOLDIER, but that's not where he belongs. He'll thrive in the chaos of battle."
"Who is it?!" Tseng cried, wanting Reno out as soon as possible.
"His name is Sephiroth. Though soon enough he'll be General Sephiroth!" Tseng said each word with an air of satisfaction, waiting for the approval he deserved. The reactions he got were decidedly worse than that. Heidegger wasn't even standing. He was actually sweating rather profusely, staring very uneasily at the president. Tseng's face had gone completely pale, and he too was sweating. He mouthed something that definitely looked like profanity to Reno. And the president was nothing short of furious. His face was red, and beginning to reach purple, and his face was contorted in an almost comical manner. He appeared too mad to even speak, so Tseng said the words for him.
"You… IDIOT!"
Author's note- Wow, it's been a long time since I updated. But I did it! And I've now got titles for my chapters too! Anyway, please just go ahead and review. And I swear, by next chapter I'll go back to Sephiroth proving to be a demi-god on the field of battle. This chapter was one of those that actually lacked any battles.